Bobby Kotick Wants to Take the Fun Out of Making Games

[Pendragon9]

Wow. This has proven to me that Kotick is an absolute idiot when it comes to games.

Look at Nintendo for example. They know to put fun IN TO their games, not take it out (even if it isn't fun for everyone, they're trying. I'll give them that). And just look how much they're making.

Kotick needs to go back to school.

 

[Ranooth]

Kotick needs to go back to school.

I would rather he have a nice roundhouse kick to the face........twice.

 

[Eric the Orange]

It's like the guy is purposely trying to make people hate him. Or prehaps he just has no conscious and doesn't try to hide it.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

He does this on purpose. Look, now you ALL know about Activision.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I'm inclined to call hyperbole at this point. He must know he is the most hated man in the industry at this point, I honestly think he's just saying these things now, well, for teh lulz. No man can truly be that calloused.

I agree that he is probably getting a kick out of it. That doesn't mean that he isn't playing some sort of ha-ha-only-serious routine and really is a killjoy.

 

[Dyp100]

Fucking hell.

What is wrong with this man? The whole point of video games is fun, even the developers should be allowed to enjoy what they do! This man should NOT be allowed to drive this company, he is a right bastard and would be more suited in something where you steal candy from little children, or some thing like that.

 

[Geoffrey42]

I'm inclined to call hyperbole at this point. He must know he is the most hated man in the industry at this point, I honestly think he's just saying these things now, well, for teh lulz. No man can truly be that calloused.

While I don't subscribe to it, the idea that Kotick is real-world trolling is delicious.

When he said the thing about charging more, I don't blame him. From a pure business perspective, of course you charge more if the market would bear it. That's where profit comes from. Sure, Ferrari probably COULD charge less per car, but why would they, when people are willing to pay that much? Supply/Demand curves are real things, and price-setting is all about maximizing profits ($60 item, cut price by $5, get 5 million additional sales, let's do a price-drop!). This quote though? The idea that jobs should NOT be fun because fun is counter-productive, ugh. If they did that at my workplace, I'd be gone in 2 months.

 

[Sovvolf]

That ************!

 

[bushwhacker2k]

I don't think I'll be working at Activision any time soon.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

I can understand where he's coming from... but I disagree.

He wants to make Videogame Making an entirely corporate, profit based persuit rather than the mad collective of Programmers and Artists that currently make up many games studios (yes even casual ones, I know someone working in a local studio and they're still all crazy artists and programmers, not corporate hot shots).

He wants to make Activision the Disney of Videogaming, cranking out generic, intensely "focus group designed" games, which is not "fun" so to speak. He wants a videogame assembly line to maximize profits and what he described as his work environment is one way to do that.

However, my girlfriend works for a man with the same outlook as good old Bobby... and this gentleman's company is failing due to his inability to hold on to knowledgable staff, the unmotivated nature of the workers (people won't work REALLY hard for you if they hate you) and the environment of extreme favoritism and backstabbing that leads to the occasional "sabotage" of jobs.

This...

He pretty much understands the basic idea of economy but not the nature of the beast he is trying to control. There is a reason that Disney cranks out so much direct to video shit and why only idiots buy it. Activision is going to end up in that limbo of cranking out crap without Disney's legion of obsessive princess fans.

 

[dthree]

Activision is really trying to be the greedy, employee-crushing, sequel spewing company that EA *used* to be. Whats that slogan about repetition and history or something?

 

[DrTrevelyan]

I used to think that EA was evil, but this guy takes the creativity-stomping cake.
The Video Game Industry is just that, an Industry. And it looks like we the gamers shall suffer for it.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Oh well, sooner or later he will turn up dead, surrounded by piles of cocain and screaming, abused, underaged male prostitutes, we'll all have a good laugh.


People like him are always doing something extremely nasty in the background, all we have to do is wait for him to get caught.

 

[meatloaf231]

Oh well, sooner or later he will turn up dead, surrounded by piles of cocain and screaming, abused, underaged male prostitutes, we'll all have a good laugh.


People like him are always doing something extremely nasty in the background, all we have to do is wait for him to get caught.

Yeah, there's no way this guy doesn't run human trafficking businesses or something.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

*In best Mama Boucher impersonation* That man is da Devil.

 

[Booze Zombie]

He's not taking the fun out of video games, just out of making them.

Thing is, though, taking the fun out of making video games leaves little enthusiasm with the dev teams, meaning that you'll get lackluster products (Guitar Hero) and can "enjoy" declining sales.

 

[Last of the Chinchillas]

I imagine that in his free time he puts on a black cape and fires puppies out of a cannon while laughing maniacally.

Honestly though, even if he does mean it, doesn't it strike him as bad form to go around shouting out stupidity like this? Not the best way to endear yourself to the people paying for your products.

 

[Cousin_IT]

argh! Truly he is one of the generation of executives who grew up worshiping Gordon Gekko

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I thought he wanted to make movies....

 

[Dapper Ninja]

That man honestly looks like a palette-swapped Joker. Just dye his hair green, drain the color from his skin, and put him in a purple suit, and they look identical... I think Bobby Kotick is the Joker in disguise as part of a plot to... be an asshole, or something. Batman will save us!